Tarot Card Meanings Ultimate Guide

Interested to learn Tarot? There are 78 cards in the Tarot deck and each of them can be interpreted in a certain way. So let’s explore together the Tarot card meanings.

It’s a fascinating journey!

One note before we start. It’s important to understand that a good reading involves more than checking what are the symbols behind each card. Experience plays a big role in putting together everything.

A Tarot reading takes into account all the elements involved – the spreads you use, the combination of cards, the types of cards that are dominant, the numerology symbols and so on.

To give you the high level perspective first, there are 22 cards in the so called Major Arcana and 56 cards in the Minor Arcana.

Then, the Minor Arcana consists of four suits: Cups, Swords, Wands and Pentacles.

What Are the Major Arcana Card Meanings?

The Major Arcana cards deal with the major areas of our life.

They form the core of the Tarot deck and they help you get in-touch with the spiritual side of life. If you are open, you will receive important lessons that allow you to deepen self-awareness and grow spiritually.

Major Arcana Tarot Spreads

If you are interested mainly in a spiritual growth type of reading, you may decide to go for a Tarot reading using only these cards.

This type of reading will provide you with deep insight into what is the direction you should consider in order to gain better self-awareness and grow.

Symbolism

Their symbolism goes beyond the specific meaning of each card.

You need to take a broader view and try to connect all the dots in a way that resonates with you. The more experienced you become and the more you understand their symbolism, the more value-added you will get from your readings.

The human journey through life is complex and it involves a growth process that is often challenging.

We get to enjoy nice surprises, love and positive life events. However, we also need to face adversity, deal with all kinds of situations and people, make tough decisions. This is known as “the journey of the Fool”.

The Suit of Cups

This suit has to do mainly with relationships, connections and feelings. They are therefore important for all the aspects that are related to love and to maters of the heart in general.

Cups also symbolize imagination and creativity, with both their positive and negative associations. On the positive side you can put them to good use, like for accomplishing an artistic goal for example.

On the negative side, you can stay too much in a fantasy world, being out of touch with reality.

What Does it Mean When You Get Mostly Suit of Cups Cards in a Tarot Reading?

The ones getting mainly Cups in their Tarot readings are seeking answers to heart-related matters, such as love and emotional struggles.

The Suit of Pentacles

The natural element associated with the Pentacles is Earth. Their meanings are mostly focused on material aspects: money, work, property.

The interpretation with the Pentacles Suit is most often related to what you make out of your material reality. How are you doing in terms of wealth, career and so on?

As always, there are to sides of the coin. The negative part is related to going to the extreme, i.e. to being too greedy, or too careless in terms of managing your finances, to excessively prioritizing work over anything else.

Pentacles are also associated with ego and self-esteem, so watch out for this more esoteric symbolism, as well.

What Does it Mean When You Get Mostly Suit of Pentacles Cards in a Tarot Reading?

What this means is the one who gets the reading is mainly preoccupied with finding answers to material matters: career, money, possessions.

Tarot Suit of Swords

The natural element associated with the Swords is air. The typical Suit of Swords Tarot card meanings are associated with courage, change, action. This suit is also associated with the mind and intellect.

Action can lead to accomplishments, but also to conflict, battles and hatred when used in the wrong way.

What Does it Mean When You Get Mainly Suit of Swords Cards in a Reading?

The ones that get a lot of Swords in their readings are preoccupied with finding answers to mental level challenges (like making a tough decision), to conflicts and arguments.

What Are Tarot Card Spreads?

The different types of spreads have been developed to facilitate reading of a specific aspect of your life you are interested in.

You should not feel that there are fixed rules and that readings can be done only in a certain way. There is a certain degree of flexibility in which the tarot spreads can be used.

You can use a generic spread in order to get answers to a more specific concern, but a dedicated spread can work better.

At the same, time you can use a spread that was designed for a certain type of reading, in order to go for a different type of reading. The more experienced you get, the more you will get a sense of what works for you better.

What Is a Reversed Tarot Card Meaning?

Each tarot card has a certain meaning if it is upright and a different meaning in reversed position. You simply need to check what is the specific meaning of a certain reversed tarot card you got.

Then, depending on the symbolism of that card in reversed position and on the spread you are going for, you will be able to make your reading.

Getting a tarot card in reversed position is not either good or bad by default. In general, the upright and respectively the reversed position of a card have totally opposite meaning.

However, a card in upright position may have a bad meaning, which mean that the reversed position brings good news.

Tarot Cards Meanings in Love

It is not surprising that love relationships tarot readings are quite frequent. Weather you are currently involved in a relationship or you would like to be, you can definitely benefit from clues on the right next steps going further.

Are you interested in finding out if someone is really your soul-mate? Will you reconcile? Will you manage to catch the interest of someone you have fallen in love with?

There are a number of tarot love spreads that can provide very good guidance on how your love life is going to be. A frequent question is what are the top love tarot cards. I will cover this in a dedicated post, as it is a topic of high interest.

Can Tarot Cards Predict the Future?

There are several ways in which people view the way in which tarot card readings predict the future. I definitely believe that Tarot readings can predict the future.

However, I always encourage people to take a broader view. Although at this time the future looks in a certain way, you do have the power to change it.

This is because we do have free will. Our destiny is not 100% carved in stone, in detail.

We do have predispositions and based on a lot of different factors our future at one point looks as depicted for example in a Tarot reading. But this is exactly the point.

How do you use such a reading?

The ideal way is to use it as a tool to grow and to act in a way that sets your life on a better path.

So a good idea would be to setup a daily tarot practice with the purpose of receiving intuitive guidance in your everyday life.

Psychic Tarot Readings

I hope you find Tarot as fascinating and helpful as I do.

With dedication, everyone can become a good Tarot reader. There is more to it than meets the eye though. It’s not only about laying a spread and checking what each card means.

It may be therefore a good idea to contact a Tarot reading psychic and go for a professional reading, at least in the beginning. In this way you can get answers you can really count on.

However, getting free Tarot readings from passionate friends is also an option.

Conclusion

In case you do want to want to put in the work and become great at Tarot readings yourself, than I hope you find the materials shared here helpful.

If you need anything else that is not covered on the site, please feel free to contact me and I will do my best to help you out.

As you make progress, remember to give back and help others grow, as well. What goes around comes around…